Free Media Movement

7 results arranged by date

There is genuine cause for alarm about the anonymous death threats going to Sunil Jayasekara's phone. They started streaming to Jayasekara, the convener of Sri Lanka's Free Media Movement, an umbrella group (hence calling the leader a convener) of journalists' organization in Sri Lanka, just before an FMM press conference on Saturday in Colombo.

In a high-risk move, the Free Media Movement in Sri Lanka released a statement condemning the government's ban on non-governmental organizations (NGOs) holding press conferences and issuing press releases. CPJ blogged about the government's move last week.

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The Sri Lankan government has taken yet another step to silence critical media coverage, banning non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from holding press conferences and issuing press releases, as well as running workshops or training sessions. The action, announced Sunday by Sri Lanka's Ministry of Defense, left the country's many press groups wondering whether they are even allowed to issue a statement criticizing the decision.

New
York, August 26, 2013--Five unidentified men entered the Colombo home of a Sunday
Leader associate editor and writerearly Saturday morning, held her
at knifepoint, and searched her home, according to news reports. The Committee
to Protect Journalists calls on Sri Lankan authorities to conduct a thorough and efficient
investigation into the attack on Mandana Ismail Abeywickrema.

Details are emerging of Sri Lanka's effort to control media
coverage of an ugly attack on demonstrators by security forces last week. In Rathupaswala
village in the town of Weliweriya, outside Colombo, on August 1, soldiers beat
and fired on people protesting what they feared was contamination of their
drinking water by a nearby factory. Most media accounts say three people died
and 50 were wounded (here is AP
and AFP
coverage). Journalists, reports say, were singled out.

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You would think that with fighting between government
forces and secessionist Tamils finished in May 2009, the Sri Lankan government might
ease its grip on public information--information which is really the property
of the country's citizens, not whichever administration happens to be holding
political power. In 2004, former President Chandrika Bandaranaike's cabinet did
approve a Freedom of Information Bill, but parliament was dissolved and the
bill never went further.

On Wednesday, Sri Lanka's Supreme Court slammed the door on a
case about the shutdown of four websites that had failed to register with the
government. In handing down its decision, the Court appeared to rule that
freedom of expression in Sri Lanka is not an absolute right and can be
restricted--and you don't need to pass a law to do so. The three-judge panel
told the petitioners who brought the case--Sunil Jayasekara, convener of the
Free Media Movement, and Udaya Kalupathirana, a member of the movement's
executive committee--that they saw no reason for the court to hear any further
arguments.